Inadvertent Slide Deployment

[Genghis the Engineer]

As relayed to me by a colleage (an engineer, not an aviation bod), whose daughter was on board at the time.

Airline: Easyjet
Type: Probably a 737
Place: Nice
Date: 23 June 2005


As I understand it due to some groundcrew error, the forward escape chute of the aircraft deployed just before moving away from the bridge. Apparently it deployed into the bridge, and the problem was solved by removing the entire chute, and emptying the forward pax compartment before departing en-route (with evacuation plans presumably satisfied).

I have no reason for knowing other than being a nosey blighter, and my friend and colleague would be interested to know what happened to his daughters flight.

Can anybody fill in the gaps?, either here or by PM / Email?

G

[WindSheer]

This happens from time to time with all airlines, and usually results in the crew member being grounded pending re-training.

It is very rare that the chute actually inflates as they are normally caught by the steps or airbridge. They have to fall a couple of feet before they automatically inflate. I assume that this is what happened with EZY.

[Doug the Head]

EZY seems to blow a lot of slides lately... :ugh:

[outofsynch]

Happens in all airlines when introducing 'bus fleet. Daft design of arm/disarm handle too similar to door handle.

Takes a while for CCrew to get into correct habit.

[Yellow Sun]

The doors are very easy to arm and disarm

Agreed, "Pin, Lever, Pin"

YS

[ezpz]

due to some groundcrew error

Slides being blown is nearly always a cabin crew error, followed by a tea and biscuits chat with your manager.

[A4]

Disarming lever - small square flat plate that you have to put your fingers behind (hold your hand out, palm up - you get the idea) to swing up to the disarm position. This requires little effort. When armed, the flat, flush plate completes the word "ARMED".

Door lever - a round "barrel" handle which you GRIP, much larger than arming lever. It swings in a much bigger arc than the arming lever and requires a lot more effort.

So one has ARMED and needs fingers to operate, the other is orange and has to be GRIPPED and heaved up to open the door. I'm not sure what else could be done to make them any more different.

If the door is opened from the outside then the slide should disarm.

[Genghis the Engineer]

The reason I assume groundcrew, is that apparently the captain was reported to have shouted some very choice things out of the window immediately afterwards - any clues?

G

[Bearcat]

With us the CCMs disarm doors and then check with Capt who refers to ecam e/wd door page to ensure slides are disarmed. Still I agree it can still happen.

[WHBM]

the captain was reported to have shouted some very choice things out of the window immediately afterwards - any clues?
Possibly to the tune of ....

Sur le pont
d'avion .....

:)

[Plastique]

It's worth noting that those clever Airbus guys in Hamburg have always designed it so that lifting the outside door handle will disarm the slide and the door assist bottle.
Clever Germans.

[FlapsOne]

The Germans were told how to do it.........by a Frenchman!

sehr klug!

[Lou Scannon]

I was told that a couple of pilots have developed a small modification to handles that will prevent this happening. The device is with Airbus as we read.

I would love to be standing behind the "perfect" kooyheiern when he or she next opens a door.

A gentle "Pssssst" in the ear usually removes any such overconfidence.:ok:

[Ringo]

I'm just glad it was'nt a Ryanair otherwise this thread would be about 5 pages long by now!

[Right Way Up]

kooyheier,
You make two assumptions . One is that the Sops are well thought out in the first place. The other is that you never get tired and that mistakes can be made. The problem with the airbus door is that the arming lever and the opening lever work in the same sense. It is a bad design!

[Carloss]

I agree with Kooyheier, the levers are different and it even says whether they are armed or not and I assume (oh oh, more assumptions) that most people these days can read.

Come on, if cabin crew are allowed to operate those doors, how hard can it be! :hmm:

(not for the girls dressed in red of course)

[JW411]

Many years ago I bowled up to the gate at YYZ. We had a very senior lady on board line-checking the cabin staff.

Very senior lady line-checker volunteered to open 1 Door Left and forgot to disarm the slide.

DC-10 slides are quite large and this one inflated INSIDE the jetway. The "meeters and greeters" on the outside had to run for their lives to avoid suffocation!

[Direct VTB]

Another supporter of Kooyheier here.....
I mean we are talking about opening and closing doors here.... It's not rocket science is it!!!!!
And having worked with them myself I found them pretty easy to use.
RWU how can you assume kooyheier isn't pleasent to work with or a professional who takes his job very serious for that matter... Just by judging him from a couple of posts??????

Very shallow don't you think.

Have to go now Direct VTB....Adios

[flapsforty]

If you guys would just knock off the personal stuff and figure out what aircraft type we are talking about here, perhaps Genghis might get a sensible answer?

clue: Boeing 737 slides are armed/disarmed by fitting the slide bar into floor brackets and vice versa. Not a lever in sight. :rolleyes:

[fly babe]

Ghengis,

The a/c was an airbus A319. The dispatcher on the airbridge knocked on door 1L and a cabin crew member (not assigned to this door) opened it before it was disarmed. These are the facts. The reasons behind these facts are too many to divulge.

fb

[Lost_luggage34]

Praise be it. A little sensible moderation when one needs it.

You will find that Genghis the Engineer is a very valid and trusted poster in these parts.

Respected for what he says and does.

Therefore, a respectful and decent answer would not go amiss.

I would like to know about the true facts. I have ageing knowledge of the aircraft in question. However, I refrain from commenting in light of learning more recent knowledge from someone who is current.

An open mind where one can learn is far better than assumption on all counts in a safety critical business.

[Dualbleed]

Doors should be "hard" to arm , so you don't forget that you did it. And easy to disarm. NOT easy both ways, like a button.

[Anti-ice]

quote 'carloss'

"Come on, if cabin crew are allowed to operate those doors, how hard can it be" .... :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Oh ,and of course if the pilots bring the plane down , and are not watching the sinkrate causing an almighty bang into the ground, they don't go into a state of denial over their mistake do they ???
Of course they do - everytime :rolleyes:

[fly babe]

Lost-luggage - I have given a decent answer! This is what happened!

If you would like the causes of the blown slide then consider: the tech failiure of the interphone, the inexperienced/very keen juniour crew member who opened the door and the 60+ sectors per month the crew's are working (also known as human factors).

[girtbar]

If you worked on a Boeing for x amount of years, and opening a/c doors was nothing more than a routine to you,
then would you not expect that a certain amount of slides might be blown when operating a new type of a/c, with a completely different arming/disarming procedure?

Well forgive the person for being nothing more than human!!

And further more judging from the posts im guessing that most of you that have posted above us dont make mistake as your at the pointy end!!!!??

They ARE lucky that no one was injured as can quite easily happen in such incidents, but thankfully no one was, this should remind all cabin crew to make sure of the doors they are operating on are armed/disarmed correctly depending on the a/c.

How on Earth those trained to work the 3 types of a/c, remember each door day in day out, when most are worked to the bone these days is beyond me! Quite frankly im suprised it does not happen more often!
But lets shoot the person down anyway like so often happens here on pprune!

[Right Way Up]

kooyheier,
Have changed my first post and deleted the rest, good on you for the apology!
There is definitely something in this about multi sectors. I am sure if you are operating 4 sectors a day for 6 days there must be an increasing chance that familiarity and tiredness/boredom can put you in autopilot mode, and with distractions can cause these kind of mistakes.

[Rollingthunder]

A few years ago we were getting about one of these a month for 8 or 9 months. All flight attendant actions. Eventually enhanced training reinforcement got the better of the situation.

Was really a pain for me to get a relacement as sometimes they weren't available at the base and I would have to bring one in and explain status in the morning to the Mtce Super and Chief Pilot. Dangerous goods and all that. Brought one in from HKG once. Had a couple expedited through the raft shop - even that takes a considerable amount of time mostly due to inflation testing and packing.

I really hate slides blown for no good reason.

[wingview]

I really hate slides blown for no good reason.
I would also hate it for a good reason...;)

[ZQA297/30]

Routine operations that become "non-standard" due to interruption, distraction, or other change are always fertile ground for "oopses".

This applies universally to all humans, cockpit, cabin, or ground variety. The phenomenon is exacerbated by fatigue, boredom, or stress.

In a nutshell, sh*t happens. The only antidote is to go into super-alert mode anytime routine is broken.

[Few Cloudy]

It is quite possible for a ground crew member to blow a slide - as when someone tries to open the door from the outside after the slide is armed - to deliver some last minute info etc.

This would also result in some choice words out of the cockpit window. Let's see.

[HZ123]

Surely that cannot happen or should not as shutes are not put into 'auto until' ewell into the taxi. So don't blame the ramp staff.

[ivor tug]

Not on the Bus as the slide is disarmed if the door is opened from the outside.
Also a factor, operating both aircraft together routinely Boeing- door armed- red strap across the viewing window. Airbus no such strap. Look up on the bus see no strap open door--oops.

The crew have to check with Flt deck before opening the doors Capt checks Ecam then says OK or not as the case may be.

[hapzim]

All slides should/will are desigined to auto disarm if opened from the outside on both Boeing and Airbus. Otherwise that fireman to the rescue will disappear rapidly just when need most.:E

[springbok449]

Hapzim, almost all boeings but not the mighty 737...

[msexyjet]

:* just to let you know it is so easy to blow a slide, when you have done 6 days on 3 early and 3 late, and minimum rest all week and very late back and going into your day off, flying into discresssion and very tired. Then something happens out of the ordinary like a dispatcher knocking on the door once they are armed, and remember we are on auto pilot (meaning everything always the same) it is so easy although thank GOD i have never done this but been near to doing this. Dont blame crew put the blame on management for working us so hard. Luckily no one was hurt except for feeling, and a very fed up crew and angry captain. But remember anyone can do this, as we are only human, and its not just cabin crew that blow slides its also other members of the crew on board. So please dont criticize as it could be you next time. Also if you new the circumstances leading up to the last blown slide you might just feel some sympathy for the crew that who blew the slilde

:O just to let you know its very easy to blow a slide on the airbus especially when you are on day 6 on a late working into discretion and shattered, remember cabin crew also work on auto pilot (something happens out of the ordinary) ie a dispatcher knocks on the door, once armed its a natural reaction just to open the door. Remember we are only human after all. dont blame crew blame management because next time your flying and knackered it could be you.

[smudgethecat]

bloody hell, a slide was blown by accident, what is the big deal?

[ivor tug]

Well Msexyjet what were the circumstances?

[freikorps]

get a life ivor, she blew a slide, end of story its easy done, even ive done it !

[msexyjet]

i never blew the slide (wished I had) joke right.
but i do know the person who did and i can not reveal the circumstances its not up to me. but right it was an accident and it happend on the end of a 6th day have some sympathy?

[fastjet2k]

I spent 2 years working in the cabin on a bus and got myself into a habit early on to tap the arming lever twice with my hand before opening the door. The lever should stay in the 'up' position as the pin is in place to prevent it from moving. At the same time I could be looking outside to just check there really IS a platform there and that I wasn't hearing knocks that weren't there!

It is easy enough to blow slides and I know a couple of people that have done it, particularly after a long tour of duty. However since we know that crew (being human) are susceptible to this it might not be a bad idea to develop your own personal habits to do your best to ensure it doesn't happen to you!

Just a thought, safe flying (and door opening!) y'all...

FJ2k

[veryEZYboy]

At the end of the day, if a slide is blown on a "bus", then it is always the cabin crews fault, because the ground crew can't blow a "bus" slide. People who aren't concentrating and aren't putting their training into practice will make mistakes. As soon as you reach the gate and are released, you should hear "cabin crew disarm doors for arrival" and then once it's done and crosschecked with your colleague you would call the senior and say "rear doors, disarmed and crosschecked" and she'll reply "and that's the forward doors disarmed and crosschecked on the F A P". ONLY at this point should the doors be opened. If someone opens it before this point, it's their fault plain and simple. All doors should be both armed and disarmed together, and remember kids, "PIN, LEVER, PIN!!!"

Rant over!

Xx

[flapsforty]

EZboy, no one will argue that blowing a slide is nearly always the fault of the FA.
Which still leaves us with the industry wide problem of (a too frequent occurance of) inadvertent slide deployment.
A blown slide is terribly inconvenient for the pax that get left behind, it's dangerous for the people outside the AC, expensive for the airline and traumatic for the FA concerned.
All good reasons to look a bit further than just 'fairly and squarely appointing the blame'.

ZQA297/30 writes words of wisdom ;) a few pages back:Routine operations that become "non-standard" due to interruption, distraction, or other change are always fertile ground for "oopses".
This applies universally to all humans, cockpit, cabin, or ground variety. The phenomenon is exacerbated by fatigue, boredom, or stress. Sh*t happens.


Studies on safety of cockpit operation show time and time again that where humans work, mistakes will be made. Despite good training, alertness and concentration. Making mistakes is in our nature.
So effective prevention of accidents needs to first acknowledge this simple fact instead of chasing the unnattainable goal of zero mistakes. Only then can we start to look for ways to catch these mistakes before their ultimate conclusion.

I think that there is room for improvement in the industry on the score of ISD prevention. Design has been mentioned here, and it's a very valid point. Far too many systems have an FA make the same directional movement to disarm the slide as to open the door. However different a lever and a door handle might look, as long as the movement is the same, it's just not smart design.
Another factor might be ground staff.
In our mob, the most frequently blown slide is the one on the first RH door of the 747. The door that is generally used for catering. Catering staff often starts to knock on the door as soon as the AC is standing still. Not because they are pushy bastards but because they have a very limited time to accomplish a very large job.
An FA tired after a long flight is apparently to prone to 'forgetting' procedures when under 'knocking pressure' from outside. Room for improvement again.
In some airlines the 'disarm slides' call is made by the CSD/Purser, in others it's always from the cockpit. Has a comparison ever been made between the incidence of ISD in these 2 different sytems?

I think if people smarter than me would really study this, quite a few more improvable factors would turn up.

[veryEZYboy]

I understand that distractions happen, but the procedure happens literally as soon as the seatbelt sign goes off.

Xx

[Self Loading Freight]

I hesitate to stray into the minefield between Boeing and Airbus, but might it not be sensible for standardisation here? Every passenger aircraft door has the same job to do - open when it should, stay shut when it should, and unroll the rubber carpet when it's time to dispense with the niceties and make haste. There are no reasons why the sticky-out bits that make it happen should be different... are there?

Every car company on the planet has managed to agree on brake, accelerator and clutch layout.

Flight deck standardisation... well, that's another story.

R

(Oh, saw a video of the A380 top deck overwing escape slide deploying. It goes in two directions at once - most impressive)

[Flying Quill]

I'm sorry, you're wrong. On the Airbus fleet the procedure is different. Door status has to be checked against ECAM status before opening since a number of slide deployments were due to false indications on the FAP. The FAP indicated that the doors were disarmed, and I suppose that the disarming process was performed by the cc, but the doors failed to disarm. The result was slide deployment. Consequently, all doors are now crosschecked/doublechecked and well and truly rogered with the flight deck before opening.

Not all unintentional slide deployment is the fault of cabin crew!

FQ

OK, just noticed that the thread has dropped the 'easyJet' from its title. The procedures above apply to easyJet, not necessarily all Airbus fleets.

[frangatang]

How many times as a passenger have you noticed the cabin crew are still yapping away to each other as the aircraft pulls on to stand.Now theres concentration for you.

[cheklapsap]

Would it not be smarter to use the built in safety feature of the door/slide design and ALWAYS, in normal operations, open it from the OUTSIDE?

Then, even though the Cabin Crew check the slides are disarmed as part of the arrival procedure, the slides cannot be deployed accidentally.

There is no rocket science involved in opening a 747 or Airbus door from the outside as no disarming is necessary. Desirable maybe, but not necessary.

Aircraft and door manufacturers designed these things in this way. Why then, do airlines muck with them?

Cls

[Flying Torquewrench]

CLS,

Airlines don't muck with them!! The only reason a door is designed to disarm when opened from the outside is for a very simple reason. The last thing emergency services want is to open a door and get a slide deploying into their face.

The airlines have a good policy as it is now! On not every aircraft the slide disarm when the door is operated from the outside, 727/737. So for an airline that operates a mixed fleet it is better to have one policy for the whole fleet to avoid confusion.

msexyjet,

I am sorry but i don't agree with your explanation that it could have happened because the crew memeber was tired. If you feel that you are not able to do a proper job because the company makes you work to hard then their are only two choices: call in sick or leave to another airline.

[MR1F]

Interesting subject -

good argument on all sides those looking at human factors try looking at a presentation given by Dr Dieter Reisinger at the cabin fire and safety conference in Atlantic city a couple of years back.

Those looking at the door arming/opening levers and procedures, Airbus know it is a problem (as do Boeing) with their aircraft and are looking to rectify it (from the horses mouth)

The two pilots (TCX I think) invention rumour is true and the device (intelligent handle or smarthandle or some name like that) should be on line over the next few months for those airlines that have signed up to it.

Basically it is a voice alert informing the operator that the door is armed. Simailar I believe to that which pilots have in the cockpit already - Glide Slope, Bank Angle, Sink Rate etc.

May it soon be on line

[flap relief]

Sounds like things are getting a bit nasty here so I thought I might lighten up the argument a bit. There was a recent report of a passenger on a KA 321 who asked cabin crew directions to lav whilst the aircraft was still at the gate. The cabin crew (obviously busy) pointed vaguely aft. SLF (obviously gold tier frequent flyer) opened mid cabin emergency exit and deployed overwing slide. Love your work.

[Few Cloudy]

You could get the impression, that only Boeing 737 and AIrbus 320 are equipped with slides...

Plenty of other ships arrive and depart from the dock - all having slides armed in different ways (eh girt bar?)

As soon as no jetty or no stairs are available, these slides have to be armed to be ready for evacuation - not "well into taxy". A couple of times I managed to prevent an MD-80 slide from being inflated by opening from the outside by a jetty operator redocking with a message.

As for standardisation in the future, it sure would be nice - however check out your turn indicator, horn (klaxon) headlight dip switch etc. on your car before deciding that all cars are standardised! There is always someone who's idea is better...

[targaman]

Happens in all airlines when introducing 'bus fleet. Daft design of arm/disarm handle too similar to door handle.

Takes a while for C/Crew to get into correct habit.

Yes and what about other incidents such as (KAL, Malaysian, CAL) where the passengers upon spotting flames coming from the big round thing (BRT) on the near wing who promptly got up (Seat bely already undone) during pushback and opened 5R on B744 and swiftly exited followed by about twenty fellow pax. Cabin Crew? Taking drink orders before take off.

Flames? Tailpipe fire after wet start. Windmill engine for 30 secs. Then stop aircraft before running over scattered pax on tarmac. ( LOL).

No injuries to speak of apparently just a lot of lost face. Cabin crew rumoured to be complimented on following SOPs and getting drink orders correctly.

SOP rewritten. Get drink orders unless pax try uncommanded evacuation on ground. In this case. Stop drink orders and report to Chief.

Chok Dee

[britanniaboy]

IN response to some of the comments made,

Airbus' doors are known within airlines to be easier to inadvertently blow a slide on due to their design

Anyone who's seen the inside of the 767 will see its the only Boeing Door that doesn't open out, but rather rolls into the ceiling. They will also not that the arming lever and door handle are right next to each other. The reason Boeing ditched the door design was because it has the highest incidence of inadvertent slide deployment in their commercial fleet

Every airline goes through phases of slides being blown more frequently than normal. This is usually attributed to new aircraft types in the fleet or changes to SOP's

Crew are human and can be distracted by passengers, things going on in the cabin, or just tiredness at the end of a long day. I have almost done it and Im sure others have. You're starting to flag and when you go to disarm, you see the handle marked pull and want to pull it, then luckily catch yourself before you do

Pilots make mistakes, so do we!

[Captain Rat]

In the airline I work for, most off the inadvertent slide deploying is caused by caterers or cleaners opening the door before bringing their truck up to the door. At a previous airline I woked for they were only allowed to open doors from the outside thus disarming the dorr if it was armed (we are obviously taling about a/c like the 747 here) The only people that were allowed to open doors from the inside were the cabin crew in an emergency (obviously), the flight crew, and the ground engineers. At that airline very few slides blown. This airline now, seems to be a regular occurence.

[clicker]

Before we all blame FA's, pilots, pax or whatever, just remember Murphy's law.

If it can happen, sooner or later it will happen.

To that I will add it's likely to happen when that person is tired, happy, drunk or just a pure idiot, and boy have I've met my fair share of all catagories!

Ron

[HZ123]

If as you say it is the cleaners or caterers then surely that implys the chutes were left in the armed position. By whom ?

[paulc]

Have been a pax on a flight in the USA that had an overwing exit slide deployed by a maintenance person. Aircraft (B757) had come across from maintenance as a replacement for a DC10 that had gone tech. Sat on the left side a few rows back from wing as passengers boarding - aware of pax having a problem in o/wing exit row - turns out that the seat belt had been trapped in the exit door - techie tried to free by pulling, no luck so just pulls the emergency handle with the result that the slide deploys - opps.
Captain comes over PA sounding less than happy and we all get off while slide is repacked (4-5 hours he said).

Are the o/wing exits disarmed at the same time as the main doors? or is there some other method by which they are disarmed.

[Capt Pit Bull]

3.You shouldn't be tired on the job..... I'm guessing WELL RESTED is the sentence I'm looking for. Because that's when mistakes start to happen....

I agree that one shouldn't be tired on the job. However, in practice you may find that management consider WELL RESTED as being the condition at the beginning of duty, with the expectation of tiredness by the end of it.

CPB

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi all
We have had a few inadvertant slide deployments in our lot, due to tiredness/cross-trained cabin crew/cleaners trying to be helpful/maintenance people who knew less than they thought. We have had the overwing slides blown by the hangar people who didn't read the book first. As an aside, I have encountered cabin crew who didn't know how to open F50 and 146 doors from the outside. Not much use to themselves or anyone else. As for those who have let slides off, have mercy. They'll get enough slagging from their mates and they won't do it again.
regards
TDD

[fmgc]

kooyheier

You will find that the airline you currently work for had lots of trouble when the type was introduced, hence the streamer.

There are those that have blown a slide and those that are going to blow a slide, so i would suggest that you wind you neck in, with that smug attitude.


As loathed as I am to get involved in the discussion:

It is a known issue on the mini bus, the arming lever moves in the same ""plane" as the door opening lever, unlike the boeings where you have to either manually engage the girt bar or move a lever through a circular motion. It is a design fault in the bus. The A330 is much better.

[Mr @ Spotty M]

paulc
The overwings can not be disarmed by crew, only by the maintenance engineers, for maintenance.

[dixi188]

It can happen to the best?
I remember watching CNN (trying to sleep after night duty) when Bill Clinton was returning to Washington on Airforce One with big reception comittee.
Aircraft stops exactly in line with steps, red carpet in place.
Door 1L starts to open then stops for a second then continues to open followed by inflating slide.
CNN cut to something else for a few minutes and then return to see President coming down steps. Inflated slide is on the ground under the aircraft.
Nothing said!!

[veryEZYboy]

LOL!! :D I would love to see that. That is the funniest thing I have heard for ages.